


Desire Lines

by reinkist



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Bickering, But it's all cool, Deja Vu, Difficult Decisions, Drunken Kissing, Impromptu Massage, Kissing, M/M, Mistakes, Post Eleventh Hour, Sort Of, Spoilers for Episode: e041-049 The Eleventh Hour Parts 1-9, Spoilers for Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Taako and Magnus Have a History, Wine, interruptions, post-Magnus/Julia, pre-Taakitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 07:57:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reinkist/pseuds/reinkist
Summary: Magnus is blindsided by deja vu. Taako almost accidentally sleeps with his ex.





	1. Chapter 1

When Magnus shouldered open the heavy wooden door to their shared common area, Taako was filling a large glass with wine. It sloshed out of the bottle in a thick, black gush as their eyes met, and Taako tipped the neck of the bottle upwards with a start. For a moment there was something desperate and fragile in the whites of his eyes, but it was gone with the light tap of the bottle against the coffee table.

Magnus let the image of that look loose among some other oddities in his recent experience, as if releasing the string of a balloon. It bumped and jittered alongside other thoughts that also seemed important but that he couldn't attach to anything, like the imprisonment of Pringles, twelve colorful circles, or the face of a man in red.

"How's it hanging, my man?" Taako leaned into the back of the couch with his glass cradled in one palm, the stem curving down between his fingers. He crossed one leg deliberately over the other, the toe of one slouchy boot drawing slow circles in the air. His expression was flawlessly neutral, eyes hooded, head cocked just slightly to one side.

"Oh, you know, the usual," Magnus replied, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag, knowledge of the picture rolled up inside it burning at the edges of his thoughts. He hesitated a moment before crossing the room, past the couch, to the far wall. His hand was on the doorknob to his own room before Taako's voice sounded again from the couch.

"Hey, Magg-o," he began, and Magnus glanced back over one shoulder. "Do you want a drink or what?" He lifted his glass in clarification.

A picture of a red-robe. A picture of Magnus. Two distinct thoughts. A puzzle piece in each hand. No direction Magnus came at the problem would allow him to snap the two pieces together, so instead of shutting himself in his room with it, he turned around, fingers sliding off the cold metal of the knob.

"Yeah. Why not. Yeah, sure, I'll have a drink."

Magnus unslung his bag from his shoulder and dropped it at his feet. The couch creaked a little under his weight. There was no second glass tucked into the clutter on the coffee table, so Magnus just grabbed up the bottle and took a long swig, then another longer one.

One of Taako's eyebrows arched. "Easy there, high-and-dry, this is the fancy shit."

"Sorry." Magnus dragged the back of his hand across his mouth. A sour aftertaste pricked at his tongue, and he swallowed. There was a haziness already blooming in his mind, walking loosening fingers down his neck, over his shoulders, down his arms.

Taako sipped a little at his own wine. He seemed to contemplate it for a moment, then drained almost half the glass. "Fuck it," he said, almost to himself, and chugged down the rest.

Taako held out his empty glass, hooded eyes full of what Magnus could have taken as some kind of challenge, but decided not to. The neck of the bottle met the rim of the glass with a dull, crystalline clink, and Magnus filled it up halfway.

They drank together in silence until the room seemed to come untethered a little from reality. No matter how much Magnus swigged from the bottle, it never seemed to get any emptier, and he examined it hazily, front and back.

"Shouldn't we be finished with this by now?"

Taako was slouched back fully into the cushions, now, hat half over his face. He wiggled his fingers in the air in the universal gesture for "magic".

Magnus frowned. "Why are you drinking a never-ending bottle of wine by yourself?"

"It's not never ending, and I'm not drinking by myself, dummy," Taako said, pushing the brim of his hat up with one finger, fixing Magnus with a look of unfocused derision.

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Yes you were, before I got home."

Taako sniffed and let his hat flop back over his face. "Where were you, anyway?" He made a figure eight in the air with the stem of his glass, cup rotating around and around the horizon line of his wine. The thought of the picture in his bag flared, raw and impossible, in Magnus's mind. Guilt twisted inside him at the fact that he hadn't told anyone about it, and shame followed at the fact that he still didn't plan to.

"I was just thinking," Magnus finally shot back. His tone was way too defensive, and he took a couple of long swigs from the bottle, ears burning.

Taako tossed back the rest of his wine. "Me too," he said, after a moment. "I guess." There was something so unusually honest in his tone that Magnus lowered the bottle, staring intently at the brim of Taako's hat where it still covered his face. Taako didn't volunteer any more information. His glass hung empty between his fingers.

Magnus blinked, eyebrows furrowing. Everything narrowed, suddenly, unsteady and unreal and with such intense familiarity that something powerful clenched in Magnus's chest. He slowly lowered the bottle to the table, leaned over, and lifted the brim of Taako's hat.

Taako looked up at him, one skeptical eyebrow shooting up toward his hairline. Magnus frowned down at him in concentration, then pulled the hat completely off his head by the brim. He laid it carefully on top of a pile of books on the table, and when he looked back, Taako was staring down at his glass, mouth twisting.

"It was a rough one," Magnus helpfully supplied. "The mission. You know, the time loops, the chalice ... "

"Yeah, no shit." Taako's eyes finally flicked back up to Magnus's, widening in amused disbelief. He waved a dismissive hand. "Look, I know what you're trying to do here, but I'm good. Taako's good."

Magnus looked down at his own folded hands, still shaken by the intense wave of deja-vu that had blindsided him so completely.

"If none of us actually wanted to get royally blitzed after all that, that would be when you'd want to start worrying." Taako made a wide motion with his empty glass. "Merle's probably out getting drunk somewhere, too. I just assumed he would be. I didn't even question it until now. Why wouldn't he be?"

Everything that the alcohol had momentarily pushed to a safe distance was bleeding back in with an edge of inevitability. Magnus was just as alone out here with these thoughts as he would have been in his room. His choice. The picture. The feeling that he was missing something punched him again, right in the gut. There was something terribly wrong. Something obvious was missing. Something important.

"Who wouldn't want to relax after all that? Unwind a little? I mean, I don't know about you chucklefucks, but I had to do some hard work. It wasn't all ... chats with goddesses or ... or riding around in mine carts, back there. I had to do a lot of high level spells, and I'll have you know, those are not as easy as I make them look--"

"You haven't even changed."

Taako's eyebrows plunged downwards. "What?"

"Your clothes. You haven't even changed clothes since we got back."

Taako narrowed his eyes, glaring daggers up at Magnus. He shoved at the heels of his boots with the ball of each foot and kicked them off over the coffee table, one after the other. One fell a few feet away. The other hit the wall with a thump, inches from a potted plant, and fell to the ground.

"All I'm saying," Magnus continued, "is that it would be easier to relax if you changed out of your ... You know, the shit you've been wearing for--"

"I'm good," Taako interrupted. It isn't like you, Magnus doesn't say.

"I'm also saying," Magnus started, and Taako crossed his legs again, bouncing one stockinged foot impatiently up and down. "I'm also saying that shit with the chalice was really ... intense." Magnus made a broad gesture with one hand. "It wouldn't exactly be a huge leap to think it might've fucked you up."

Taako lunged forward and made a grab for the bottle. Wine sloshed out into his glass. Magnus could read tension and distress plain as day in the taut lines of his back. "Nope. Like I said, Taako's good."

Magnus couldn't take his eyes off the way Taako's hair had slipped forward over his shoulders, parting on either side of his neck. Magnus took on the responsibility for protecting his friends a long time ago, but it was impossible to keep his guard up all the time. It was easy to be talked down, at least a little, by Taako's own unfailing sense of self preservation. The fact that Taako could turn a room into a raging inferno with the wave of a hand also contributed.

Taako sipped steadily at his wine, back to Magnus, elbows on his knees. "Trust me, the chalice showed me the best case scenario. Which wasn't the goal, I don't think, so ... Sucks to be it."

Like this, though, at home, Taako looked so breakable. He was all limbs, but there wasn't very much to any of them. Magnus could probably lift him up by the back of the cloak with one hand and set him just about anywhere, if he wanted, if it wouldn't net him a fireball to the face. Something ached in Magnus's chest at the sight of him.

"You don't really seem that okay. I mean, I'm sorry, but ... "

"Trust me, everything's cool here, my dude."

This wasn't right. Words weren't working. Magnus needed to do something. He couldn't just ...

His hand was on the back of Taako's neck before he even knew what he was doing, rubbing a circle with his thumb into the downy hair at his hairline. Taako's spine went ramrod straight. He shot an incredulous look over his shoulder.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Magnus snatched his hand away in embarrassment, head swimming. What the fuck was he thinking? Why had he done that? Everything about it had felt natural, automatic, like it was something he had done a million times, even though he knew it wasn't. He absolutely knew it wasn't.

He rubbed at his forehead in confusion. Was it something he used to do with Jules?

He was drunk. It was possible, though with a pang Magnus remembered how his hands would most naturally stray to her waist, to the place where the bodice of her dress met the folds of her skirt, where the curves of her hips fit so perfectly in the palms of his hands.

The chalice. Seeing her ...

What was going on? What was he doing?

The wine bottle met the table with a loud clunk that jolted Magnus out of his own head. Taako drained the rest of his glass and slumped forward, still turned away. He pushed his glass onto the table, shoving the clutter forward to make room. Some papers fell off the edge and fluttered to the ground. Silence stretched between them, almost unbearably loud.

Taako broke it. "I didn't say you had to stop."

"It seemed pretty fucking implied," Magnus shot back, and Taako slanted a glare over one shoulder, eyelids heavy.

"Well, it wasn't."

They held eye contact for a long, loaded moment. The tips of Magnus's ears began to burn.

Taako's neck was just as slight under his hand as Magnus had thought it was the first time. He held his hand there, lightly, in indecision, until the heat from his palm warmed the slight chill of Taako's skin. Taako dropped his gaze and turned his head, until all Magnus could see behind the fall of his hair was the tip of one ear and the curve of his cheek.

The familiarity wasn't Jules at all. Jules was bigger than Taako, heavier, and soft all over in a way that Magnus could never get enough of. She was smaller than Magnus, but not like this. Magnus absently rubbed a small circle into the muscle at the base of Taako's skull with his thumb. It was so tight. So tense. He began to rub the other side with his fingertips, too, and worked his way all the way down Taako's neck and back up.

Taako let out an audible breath, head dropping forward. Magnus froze for a moment, face hot, but his hand started up again as if on its own, rubbing deep circles into the tense muscles near the base of Taako's neck.

"I just think it's kind of shitty," Taako slurred. "No, no ... Actually, yes. Shitty, for you to be, like, interrogating me about my level of okay-ness when you're the least okay out of any of us. I mean, I was just going to be polite and not say anything, but here we are." Taako made a small gesture encompassing the two of them, face still turned away. "If this is somehow going to make things better for you, then, whatever. Just don't act like this is somehow for my benefit."

A wave of heat flamed up Magnus's neck. His face absolutely burned. His mouth hung open for a moment before he could respond. "Wow. Fuck you?"

Taako let out a snotty, tipsy little snort of a laugh. Magnus grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him upright. He dug both thumbs into the muscles just at the base of Taako's neck and rubbed them in tight, rough circles. Taako let out a surprised huff of a breath, but he didn't pull away. Instead he leaned just slightly into Magnus's hands, head lolling a little on his neck.

"Is that why you're so fucking tense? Everything is one hundred percent a-okay?" Magnus dug his thumbs in deeper, trying to loosen the muscle, and failing. "But yeah, no, I'm not okay either, thanks for your concern. Tell me if this hurts."

Magnus grabbed onto Taako's shoulder with one hand to hold him still and dug downwards into the meat of his neck with the knuckles of the other. Taako's head dropped forward and he made a strangled little sound that Magnus was one hundred percent sure he hadn't intended to make. Triumph swelled in Magnus's chest. He let off that one spot for the moment, rubbing circles all the way down Taako's spine and back up the other side. There was something about the quickening rise and fall of Taako's back under his hand that made that feeling of triumph absolutely roar.

He set to massaging Taako's shoulders again with both thumbs, and doubt began to creep steadily into his mind. Was Taako right? Was this only for his own benefit? He would just have to do such a good job that Taako would benefit from it, regardless of anyone's original intentions. "Look ... I'm sorry."

Taako didn't respond. Magnus hooked an arm loosely around him and braced a hand on his chest. He began to dig his thumb and the knuckle of his forefinger again into the muscles on either side of Taako's spine, and Taako leaned heavily into the hand supporting him.

"You're right, I guess it wasn't fair for me to expect you to talk when I had no intention of ... talking, myself."

Taako let out a self-satisfied little hum, and silence stretched out for a few beats. "This is a little much, though, don't you think?" Taako's hand slid over Magnus's where it was braced on his chest, curling a little around it. His fingertips were cold.

"I don't know what you mean." Taako didn't drop his hand, and Magnus didn't stop rubbing his back.

"I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here, in your mind. I'd just like a glimpse."

Magnus's ears burned. "I'm trying to do you a favor."

"Uh ... huh." Taako turned, angling a heavy-eyed look up at Magnus that made something completely unmistakable spark in his middle and catch fire. Magnus froze, hand stilling on Taako's back just above dip of his waist. Taako's heart raced under his other hand. Oh.

Oh.

Magnus's eyes widened. Everything swam, with alcohol and with that feeling, that feeling his hands seemed to remember but that his mind could only fruitlessly try to grab for, again and again. "I didn't mean ... " He didn't move.

Taako shifted, turning towards the back of the couch, towards him, his long legs twisting almost primly together under the hem of his skirt. His eyes were sharp underneath their heavy lids. "You didn't mean what?" His hand remained on Magnus's, small and cold.

Something inside Magnus was shocked to life at the feeling of his palms against Taako's body, and he tightened his hands, feeling flesh give against his fingertips. Taako's eyes were wide and hazy, now, strange and opaline and unearthly like elf eyes always were, front teeth just visible behind his parted lips.

"Magnus," Taako warned.

Magnus kissed him.

Taako pushed forward with a little surprised sound, rising up a little on his knees, grabbing handfuls of the front of Magnus's tunic. Magnus shifted towards him, planting one knee in the couch, the hand on Taako's chest moving to cradle the back of his skull. Magnus pulled him in with the hand at the small of his back, closer, between his thighs. Their teeth clashed.

The kiss was sloppy and drunk and a little desperate. There was something powerful and intangible on the horizon, it felt like, that Magnus couldn't stop chasing. The deja-vu was going to drown him. Taako's lips were soft, but the rest of him was so bony. Magnus wrapped both arms around his waist and pulled them tightly together. Taako flung both arms around his neck.

Footsteps from the hall and the sound of the latch destroyed the moment as easily and effectively as a bucket of ice water. One moment Magnus's arms were full, and the next they weren't.

"Hiya, Magnus!" Merle called from the doorway. Magnus collapsed against the back of the couch, dragging a hand over his face.

"Hi, Merle."

Taako was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

"Burning the midnight oil, huh?" Merle said in that infuriatingly knowing tone he tended to take.

Magnus straightened up, dropping his hand from his face. "No, this is ... Well, I mean, yes, I guess, but this isn't ... I mean, this is Taako's." He pointed at the wine. "We were just ... He just left the room for ... for a minute, I think ... "

Taako didn't want to hear any more. He shoved his spare wand back into his shirt and spun on his heel, leaving their grey silhouettes behind.

When he was safely in the shadow of his bedroom, he blinked back from the Ethereal Plane and slumped against the door.

This was not the plan. None of this was the plan. Nothing that had happened over the entire evening was anything remotely resembling the plan.

Taako ripped off his shirt and tossed it at his feet. He shimmied out of his skirt, too, and savagely kicked it off. He couldn't stand the idea of being in those clothes anymore, and the idea that Magnus had called him out was absolutely unbearable. He peeled off his leggings and flung those, too, stumbling drunkenly. Everything was so bad, bad with a capital "B". It was difficult to think. His thoughts were scattered like shards of broken glass, tedious and potentially painful to gather.

Fuck everything. He rooted furiously around in in the crumpled pile of his shirt and grabbed up his spare wand. He squinted in unsteady concentration and fucking obliterated the entire outfit from the face of the planet with a series of three scorching rays.

Taako stomped into the bathroom and wrenched the handle in the shower to as hot as it could possibly go. He had showered before they left for Refuge, which, functionally, had only been this morning. Technically speaking, though, it had been days. Weeks. Months? It was a shame Magnus had basically ruined his entire evening, because post-adventure showers were usually the fucking best.

As he gracelessly massaged shampoo into the roots of his hair he couldn't seem to stop himself from poking and prodding at those broken-glass thoughts. Magnus wasn't actually interested in him. That had always been obvious. Not that Taako had ever been anything more than curious. He'd have to be a disembodied brain in a jar not to be curious, though. Magnus was ... something else.

It just wasn't going to happen. It was absolutely not going to happen.

As Taako ducked under the spray, the largest, most inconvenient shard came uncovered, even though he'd been trying not to look at it. He'd been actively trying not to look at it all evening. Earlier he'd broken open that bottle of replenishing wine he'd been hoarding for at least a year in an attempt to keep from looking at it. He stood, frozen, water running in a steady stream off the long ends of his hair.

Taako couldn't even remember the last time he'd felt like this. He didn't know what to do.

His overheated forehead met the cold tile with a clunk he didn't really feel. It was embarrassing, all in all. Taako found people attractive. That happened all the time. That wasn't the issue. So what? Kravitz was attractive. No one could argue he was anything else. Taako could own up to that, no problem.

The problem was that Taako had realized, partway through their conversation earlier in the evening, that this was something else entirely. It was something else in the way that made one's intelligence plummet and pulse go through the roof. It was something else in the way that made one's chest ache and gravity stop working properly on one's organs.

Taako stewed in his own humiliation, face still pressed against the tile. Everything felt so out of step, being the one on the messy end of feelings. The proverbial cart was barreling down the side of a mountain, dragging the horse behind it.

This wasn't the way things went. People loved Taako. Occasionally he loved them back. What he didn't do was devote excessive headspace to them when they weren't there, and he never dealt much in false optimism. He never dealt in "what if"s. It was ridiculous to think that anything was going to happen. But his stone of farspeech, now attuned to Kravitz's, hung like a glowing ember in his mind, uncharacteristically warm and bright.

It was only a matter of time before disappointment would strike, though. He knew it would be.

Everything started to swim, so Taako opened his eyes, pushing himself away from the wall. He made an uncoordinated grab for the soap. 

Taako felt drunker getting out of the shower than he had getting in. He clumsily wrung the water out of the long tail of his hair, and had to correct his path with a hand to the wall on the way to the sink. He fumbled open a compact, leaning right up against the mirror, and smudged dark shadow over his eyelids. He blinked at himself. Good. Subtle and smoky.

One of the smoldering piles of ash in the bedroom floor was still on fire. Taako fumbled his wand up from where he'd tossed it on the bed and extinguished it with a ray of frost. He pulled half the clothes out of his dresser looking for a particular shirt, a loose, cream-colored tunic that he knew he looked damn good in. Good in an effortless, spontaneous way, too, like he didn't care.

Because he didn't.

The common room was empty when he opened his door, and the lights were out. His glass was still on the coffee table, but the bottle of wine was gone. He narrowed his eyes in the direction of Magnus's room.

That was it. That was absolutely it.

Magnus's door was unlocked. Taako flung it so wide that it hit the wall, and, with a word, lit every lamp in the room. Magnus groaned from the bed and threw an absurdly muscular arm over his eyes. Taako shoved his wand back into his shirt and slammed the door.

"Why did you kiss me?" Taako demanded, short heels loud on the floor. He stood over Magnus, hands on his hips.

Magnus dropped his arm from his eyes, gaping like a fish. "I ... I don't know," he finally said.

"Wrong answer, buck-o," Taako snapped.

"What the fuck am I supposed to say?" Magnus sat up indignantly. "It's the truth!"

"Great. Great. Did the last zone of truth give you fucking brain damage?" Taako threw up his hands. "At least give me my wine back, if we're all being so goddamn honest around here!"

Magnus crossed his arms over his chest and had the nerve to look affronted. "I didn't take your fucking wine. I put it in the fridge."

Taako gaped. "What? Why? Who puts wine in the fridge? You don't put wine in the fridge!"

"Yes you do!"

"No you don't!"

"I've seen you put wine in the fridge!"

"Yeah, okay, sure, maybe at some, I don't know, undetermined point in the past I put a white dessert wine in the fridge. But we're not talking about a white dessert wine, now are we? We're talking about a motherfucking Cabernet Sauvignon!"

"Who cares about your fucking wine?" Magnus gestured uselessly. "We wouldn't even be having this argument if you didn't just ... teleport off the fucking plane!"

Taako flung his arms wide. "Did you want Merle to catch us? That would have been fun as fuck!"

"No, but you could've just ... I don't know, scooted over to the other side of the couch real quick like a normal person?"

"I panicked! Who fucking cares?"

Magnus gestured at Taako with both arms. "You ditched me!"

"So?" Taako crossed his arms and raised his chin.

The corners of Magnus's mouth pulled downwards. He dropped his hands to his lap. The crease between his eyebrows deepened, and he looked up at Taako for a long moment with enormous, watery puppy eyes. "You were gone, and didn't come back, and I thought ... I thought I made a terrible mistake."

It was, unfortunately, the right thing to say. Taako's mouth twisted and he dropped his eyes to Magnus's hands, which were pulling each of the thighs of his leggings into twin starbursts of wrinkles.

"Did I? Make a mistake?" Magnus's tone was so unbearably earnest that Taako couldn't stand it. This was what made Magnus so impossible to deal with half the time. It was all well and good for that unwavering loyalty towards life, limb, and emotional wellbeing to be directed toward their friends, but when it was pointed directly at Taako himself it was like a kick to the chest. It was enough to make him want to start another fight just to get Magnus to stop looking at him like that.

Taako let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, I mean ... Fuck." Taako dropped his hand and narrowed his eyes at Magnus. The impulse to be charitable seemed to be winning out, and it was starting to piss him off. "Yes, you definitely did, but if you remember, I didn't exactly stop you."

They stared at each other for a long moment.

Taako flung himself onto the edge of the bed next to Magnus, studiously looking away. The specter of sobriety was slowly rising in the haze of his mind, pointing a bony, unwavering finger at a growing pile of bad decisions. "Look ... "

"Taako ... " They'd spoken at the same time.

Taako looked up at Magnus, mouth twisting with skepticism. "What?"

"You go first."

Taako sighed. "Look, I was just going to say that if you wanted to forget all of that happened, I'd let you have the first one for free."

Magnus actually had the gall to look upset. "I'm not ... I'm not going to do that!"

Taako leaned back on his elbows. "Good. Good answer." He crossed one knee over the other. Magnus twisted around to look at him, hand planted in the mattress. A thick lock of hair lay on Taako's chest, curling loosely at the end. He knew that the rest of it was piled in a flawless, silky puddle on the bedspread behind his back, and he shook it out a little to make sure he wasn't the only one who did. "What were you going to say?"

Magnus blinked rapidly, as if clearing his thoughts. Taako's chest flared with a little ember of satisfaction. "Just that ... Please don't take this the wrong way, but," Magnus began, "it's been a really weird day."

The corners of Taako's mouth began to tug downward, mostly without his permission.

"A lot of super confusing shit's been going on, and I just ... "

A lump was forming in Taako's throat, completely and entirely without his permission.

"I don't ... I just had this feeling ... " Magnus rubbed at his forehead. "I just felt ... " He let out a short, frustrated sigh. "It felt like it was, like, something that I ... should do? Or maybe ... that it was right? To do? I don't know. That's just what I felt."

Taako's eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. Magnus was either being romantic or being an idiot, and Taako wasn't actually sure which one he would rather shell out the patience for. "So ... You kissed me, because it felt right," he said, slowly. That ... wasn't the worst.

Magnus scrunched up his face in a way that made Taako immediately start to rule out "romantic". "I guess? It was kind of ... more than that, though, I think," he muttered.

Well. Maybe not. "I'm listening."

"I don't ... really know what to say." Magnus's eyes were doing that abandoned puppy thing again. Sorted into a series of somewhat flattering statements, it was much less irritating. Taako thought of Magnus's hands on his body, and a little shiver went down his back. He thought of the sudden, clumsy desperation between them, and of the way it had been to feel wanted for the first time in who knows how long.

"So are you going to try it again, or what?" Taako asked, conscious simultaneously of the open neckline of his own tunic and of the lack of any great distance on the bed between their thighs. Magnus's eyes widened. "Might be a good way to ... I don't know, shine a light on your little mystery?"

Magnus gaped down at him for long enough that Taako began to wonder if he was going to have to take matters into his own hands. Magnus finally shut his mouth and swallowed, adam's apple bobbing. He lifted a hand from his lap and lay it hesitantly over Taako's stomach.

It was large and warm, and the small flame that had been flickering in Taako's middle flared bright. Magnus stared intently down at him, fire from the bedside lamp flickering behind the short ends of his hair. In what seemed to be either a moment of courage or decisiveness Magnus grabbed him by the waist and tugged him closer.

All right, then. Taako could definitely work with that. He fisted a hand in the front of Magnus's tunic and pulled him down.

Their lips met a little off center, but Taako quickly corrected. Magnus's hand left his waist and slid behind his back, pulling him closer, effortlessly lifting him a little off the bed. Taako hummed a little, arms twisting around Magnus's back. Points for that.

Magnus's lips were much softer than one might expect, too, which also netted him some points. He seemed to be a very attentive kisser, easily matching Taako's speed and intensity beat for beat. Definitely some points there.

Okay.

This ...

Hmm.

Magnus laid Taako back down on the bed, pulling his arm out from behind his back. He leaned down, putting his weight on one forearm next to Taako's head.

"Figure anything out yet?" Taako asked, a little more breathless than he wanted to admit to, palms loose against the broad, warm planes of Magnus's back. Magnus shook his head a little. His face took up Taako's entire field of view. His expression was comically serious, and it was mildly exasperating. Magnus cupped Taako's face with his palm, brushing a thumb lightly over his cheek.

Somehow, somewhere, with a jolt Taako realized he had expected Magnus to do just that. His stomach dropped almost violently. His breath caught. His heart stuttered and raced, and in an instant he could feel it. He could feel what it would be like to be laid out underneath Magnus's hands, skin to skin, absolutely powerless with need. He could feel how it would be to be the sole object of Magnus's unwavering, unconditional affection, and how all his defenses could be dismantled one by one, before he even knew they were under attack.

Magnus leaned down and kissed him again, hand cradling his skull. Taako's hands spasmed on his broad back, his fingers digging into soft linen, into the firm flesh underneath. He arched into Magnus's body, their chests coming together in a long, exquisite line. He wanted Magnus to touch him again. He wanted to be at the mercy of those hands. The syrupy heat that had pooled in Taako's stomach abruptly centered in an urgent rush between his legs. He could so easily imagine Magnus's mouth on him, the tight ring of his lips, the molten heat of his tongue, the rasp of his beard on Taako's inner thighs. It was so easy to imagine Magnus taking care of him with exactly the same amount of gentle attentiveness he was currently employing everywhere else. But ...

It wasn't ...

Part of Taako was so thirsty for that attention. He was absolutely desperate for it. But he didn't ...

Magnus would be like a shirt, three sizes too big. Comfortable, maybe, and easy to put on, but that, when it came down to it, didn't actually fit.

Taako pulled away a little from the kiss, and Magnus chased his lips. Taako gave in a little longer, a bit lost in the rhythm and the slow, slick slide of their mouths, until they both broke apart, breathing hard. His heart was racing. His pulse pounded between his legs.

"Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you feel it too?" Magnus's voice was rough, his eyes hazy, hand still large and warm on Taako's cheek, thumb tracing a gentle track over his cheekbone.

"No," Taako said, "No, I have no idea."

Magnus groaned and hung his head, but when he looked back it was with a resigned little smile. "You are such a fucking liar."

Taako smiled conspiratorially up at him. "And you," he said, patting Magnus's cheek, "are always gullible as fuck."

Magnus sighed dramatically and rolled off him, onto his back, throwing an arm over his face. His tunic was rucked up a little around his middle, and Taako noted the tightness at the front of his leggings with more than a little satisfaction. He sat up, weight on one hand, leaning over Magnus, knees overlapping his side. He lightly kicked Magnus a few times in the leg until he dropped his arm. It fell over Taako's lap.

"So you wanna go get some food, or what?" Taako asked.

"Yeah," Magnus said begrudgingly. They looked at each other for a while longer without speaking. As soon as they stood, Taako knew the weird spell that had fallen over them both would be broken. Magnus's eyes were warm. Taako's hair curtained his face, the ends of it lightly curling over Magnus's arm. Magnus smiled and patted Taako on the hip before he finally sat up.

Taako made them blueberry muffins. As he stirred together the ingredients, bowl under one arm, he made a decision.

Magnus was hovering. He was always so uncomfortable having other people make food for him, but he figured out the hard way that that particular discomfort was way preferable to the discomfort he'd feel if he interfered with Taako in the kitchen. He was reading the back of the sugar, eyebrows drawn together in the middle. It was kind of sweet.

It wouldn't be a bad life, all in all, if he decided to kick around with Magnus for a while. Might be nice. In some ways, it might be really nice. Nice, but not ...

Not enough.

Taako absently scraped batter off the sides of the bowl with his spoon and gave it one last good stir. He was going to go for it. The prospect of seeing Kravitz again made something almost unbearably light flutter in his chest. What's the worst that could happen? How much would it really matter, anyway, if he made a fool of himself in front of somebody who lived on another goddamn plane?

Tomorrow morning, he was going to call Kravitz. They were already supposed to meet up, so ... Why couldn't it be a date? And that ... And that was what was going to happen.

Taako bit back a smile as he filled each muffin cup in the tray with batter, and slid them neatly into the oven. Magnus was still hovering, so Taako made him do the dishes while the muffins baked. Taako sat on the counter, swinging his feet.

Magnus had been unusually quiet. Taako sighed and lightly kicked him. "Hey, my dude, don't ... Don't get used to this, but ... Are you okay?"

"Ch'yeah," Magnus said, straightening up a little, giving a cocky little toss of his head. "I'm fine." He went back to scrubbing, up to his arms in suds. After a moment he shot another glance at Taako. "Are you?"

"Yeah." Taako lifted his chin. "Yeah, I'm good."


End file.
